Are my eyes lying? Empty stadiums. Marshall vs La Tech tonight, for example. The Marshall stadium used to be packed. Those mid-week MAC games for example — places are empty. Is there some major shift underway?

Live sports attendance as a whole is down. Look at NBA arenas for mid week games, price out get in the door prices on stub hub for even the good teams. Attendance at live events are down for a number of reasons, and FCS is facing a lot of those same problems.

So, ticket sales at a number of these places have turned into fund raisers with large numbers of punchers having no intention of using the tickets? Do these ticket holders try to give the tickets away, like to clubs, organizations, et al to help with game day appearances?

[Edit: I previously somehow posted the wrong link here for an SI article about college football attendance. BucDoctor correctly posted the one I intended, two posts further down.
Sorry for the bad link.]

I've read articles lately that say that with the exception of the "big bowl games", turnstile attendance for bowl games is rarely more than half of the reported paid attendance and sometimes as low as one third of the reported paid attendance.

I've read articles lately that say that with the exception of the "big bowl games", turnstile attendance for bowl games is rarely more than half of the reported paid attendance and sometimes as low as one third of the reported paid attendance.

You are correct. Don't know *how* that happened. Thanks! I will edit to so state.

I've read articles lately that say that with the exception of the "big bowl games", turnstile attendance for bowl games is rarely more than half of the reported paid attendance and sometimes as low as one third of the reported paid attendance.

You are correct. Don't know *how* that happened. Thanks! I will edit to so state.

The P5 already has all the significant bowls tied up except for one team. THE P5 with the exception of the Pac 12 have massive payouts from ESPN and FOX for their networks. ESPN is currently negotiating with the PAC 12 for their network. The Pac 12 is forced to have a network because the SEC especially and to a lesser degree the other P5 conferences have a tremendous advantage in facilities and budgets being financed by ESPN and FOX. This has caused a exodus of PAC 12 recruits to leave the WEST COAST.

ESPN just outbid CBS for the SEC sat games. CBS paid 50 mil for the previous TV contract, ESPN won the bid this time with 300 mil. That's another 250 mil the SEC will divide between their schools. I will bet that with the on air push by everyone[/i] at ESPN, that the FBS playoff will expand to 8 teams, creating another another revenue stream for P5 conferences.

With the paying of college players the P5 teams, especially the SEC, will finally be out in the open as football factories and feeder programs for the NFL,

The P5 already has all the significant bowls tied up except for one team. THE P5 with the exception of the Pac 12 have massive payouts from ESPN and FOX for their networks. ESPN is currently negotiating with the PAC 12 for their network. The Pac 12 is forced to have a network because the SEC especially and to a lesser degree the other P5 conferences have a tremendous advantage in facilities and budgets being financed by ESPN and FOX. This has caused a exodus of PAC 12 recruits to leave the WEST COAST.

ESPN just outbid CBS for the SEC sat games. CBS paid 50 mil for the previous TV contract, ESPN won the bid this time with 300 mil. That's another 250 mil the SEC will divide between their schools. I will bet that with the on air push by everyone[/i] at ESPN, that the FBS playoff will expand to 8 teams, creating another another revenue stream for P5 conferences.

With the paying of college players the P5 teams, especially the SEC, will finally be out in the open as football factories and feeder programs for the NFL,

So, with all this additional SEC money, they’ll now be able to donate some mega bucks to the financial aid office, who will pass it on to students in the form of grants, that will help reduce their accumulating debt? Yea, right. Seriously, without paying their athletes at least $50,000 a year and after paying the coach, where are they spending this money?

The P5 already has all the significant bowls tied up except for one team. THE P5 with the exception of the Pac 12 have massive payouts from ESPN and FOX for their networks. ESPN is currently negotiating with the PAC 12 for their network. The Pac 12 is forced to have a network because the SEC especially and to a lesser degree the other P5 conferences have a tremendous advantage in facilities and budgets being financed by ESPN and FOX. This has caused a exodus of PAC 12 recruits to leave the WEST COAST.

ESPN just outbid CBS for the SEC sat games. CBS paid 50 mil for the previous TV contract, ESPN won the bid this time with 300 mil. That's another 250 mil the SEC will divide between their schools. I will bet that with the on air push by everyone[/i] at ESPN, that the FBS playoff will expand to 8 teams, creating another another revenue stream for P5 conferences.

With the paying of college players the P5 teams, especially the SEC, will finally be out in the open as football factories and feeder programs for the NFL,

So, with all this additional SEC money, they’ll now be able to donate some mega bucks to the financial aid office, who will pass it on to students in the form of grants, that will help reduce their accumulating debt? Yea, right. Seriously, without paying their athletes at least $50,000 a year and after paying the coach, where are they spending this money?

A thought is that this allows them more money to dominate in other sports, i.e. men's and women's basketball. That 25 million bump per year ALONE for each SEC school (if really divided equally among the SEC schools) meets or exceeds the athletic budget of ETSU.

Wrap your heads around TV revenue from a single sport that exceeds the athletic budgets of most universities . Add to this the shares of the NCAA basketball tourney and we can quickly see why the top 18 teams of the Big 12 get bids. Follow the money folks